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What we measure and why

Corrugation and acoustic roughness

RailMeasurement equipment is used to measure corrugation and acoustic roughness, mainly on rails but also (with the TriTops) on wheels. Corrugation increases track maintenance because of the vibration that results from it. In populated areas, the noise caused by corrugation can be extremely intrusive and heard at a distance of several kilometres. For this reason a few railway administrations require that some lengths of track are maintained to have a very low level of irregularities, as the alternative would be to erect ugly and intrusive noise barriers.

Corrugation and long wave irregularities are of particular concern on metro and transit systems, who are amongst our best clients. These railway systems exist where there are high population densities, so noise and ground-borne vibration are of paramount importance.

Some examples of corrugation and of reprofiled rail are shown below. The examples of reprofiling include conventional grinding, so-called “offset” grinding, milling and milling with post-treatment of linishing.